25th Anniversary Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Concerts

Last year, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame celebrated its 25th
anniversary in style. Not only did the institution finally decide to monetize
the cache of footage it had collected from its annual induction ceremonies, but
it also staged a pair of blockbuster concerts at New York City’s Madison Square
Garden. The result of the latter event was a jaw-dropping display of talent that
paid homage to the history of rock music via a series of inspired collaborations
and impassioned performances. Even in the wake of decades of mammoth summer
festivals and benefit shows — from Woodstock to Live Aid to Bonnaroo — everyone
who witnessed the event, whether it was in person or on television, agreed that
nothing quite like this had ever before been staged.

Undeniably, it must have been daunting to be responsible for organizing the
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s 25th anniversary concerts. Essentially,
the goal was to assemble a core group of performers and ask each of them to host
a segment that was devoted to a particular style of music. Because it is an
all-inclusive amalgamation, rock ’n‘ roll is inherently messy and difficult to
classify. Nevertheless, although the dividing lines inevitably were blurred over
the course of two nights — how could they not be? — the slate of house bands largely succeeded in staying within their predetermined
boundaries.

Joined by a revolving assemblage of other artists, the main acts were tasked
with distilling roughly 60 years of rock ’n‘ roll history into a two-concert
showcase. Seated alone at his piano, Jerry Lee Lewis opened each of the
performances with a single song: Though it is absent from The 25th
Anniversary Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Concerts, a three-DVD overview of the
proceedings, Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On was tackled on the first night;
Great Balls of Fire appeared during the second act. Although his vocals
may have been frail, Lewis’ ornery spirit was certainly alive. After performing
Great Balls of Fire, he not only kicked over his piano bench, but he also
returned to toss it aside.

Crosby, Stills and Nash transformed several of their Woodstock-era songs into
huge, arena-worthy anthems. With Sting by his side, Stevie Wonder folded the
brassy power of his own Higher Ground into the reggae-inspired groove of
The Police’s Roxanne. Paul Simon paid homage to doo-wop and early rock by
performing The Wanderer with Dion DiMucci and by ceding the stage to
Little Anthony and the Imperials for a sparkling, a cappella rendition of Two
People in the World. Joined by Art Garfunkel, Simon also tackled several
expected but nonetheless magnificent gems from their collaborative canon,
including Bridge over Troubled Water and The Boxer. Aretha Franklin delivered pristine replications of her Motown
classics (Baby, I Love You, Don’t Play That Song, and Chain of
Fools). Filling in at the last minute for Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck tore
through Let Me Love You Baby with Buddy Guy and Jimi Hendrix’sFoxey
Lady with Billy Gibbons.

The best sets of the two-night engagement were anchored by Metallica, U2, and
Bruce Springsteen. Metallica delivered a pair of its own thunderous compositions
(For Whom the Bell Tolls and Enter Sandman), and it demonstrated
its dexterity by supporting Lou Reed (Sweet Jane), Ray Davies (All Day
and All of the Night), and Ozzy Osbourne (Iron Man/Paranoid). In one
of the show’s biggest surprises, Metallica also offered a credible cover of Bob
Seger’s Turn the Page. Elsewhere, Springsteen and U2 unleashed a mixture
of original material and cover tunes with their customary gusto. Mick Jagger,
The Black Eyed Peas, Patti Smith, and Springsteen made appearances during U2’s
suite of songs, while soul legends Sam Moore and Darlene Love, classic artists
John Fogerty and Billy Joel, and guitarist Tom Morello surfaced during
Springsteen’s showcase.

There is no doubt that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s objectives for these
concerts were enormously broad. Consequently, it is safe to assume that no
matter how well things went, there were bound to be valid criticisms leveled at
the event. Sure enough, the 25th Anniversary Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
concerts were as noteworthy for the songs and acts that were included in the
presentation as they were for those that were forgotten or minimized.

Bob Dylan, for example, was invited multiple times to perform at the Rock &
Roll Hall of Fame’s 25th anniversary concerts, but he refused to
participate. Consequently, save for Stevie Wonder’s rendition of Blowin’ in
the Wind and a snippet of Talkin’ New York that was deployed during a
photo montage, Dylan’s songs were noticeably absent from the festivities.
Complicating matters, this portion of Wonder’s set was excised from the
subsequent HBO broadcast as well as the three-DVD collection of highlights that
recently was issued by Time Life. The Allman Brothers Band suffered a similar
fate — Midnight Rider had been covered by Crosby, Stills and Nash but was
left out of the widely distributed program — while the Grateful Dead was ignored
completely. Songs by Eric Clapton, David Bowie, Neil Young, James Brown, and
even Elvis Presley were also missing entirely or used only in passing.

Surprisingly, The Beatles’ canon was reduced to two tracks — interpretations
of Here Comes the Sun and A Day in the Life by Paul Simon (with
help from David Crosby and Graham Nash) and Jeff Beck, respectively. Likewise,
the only acknowledgment of The Beach Boys’ accomplishments occurred when Our
Prayer was piped through the public address system during another
introductory photo montage. Meanwhile, although U2’s momentous legacy is
indisputable, it does seem a little unbalanced that the outfit was allowed to
tackle seven of its own songs — even if some of them were utilized as clever
segues — at the expense of so many other worthwhile selections.

There are, of course, plenty of good reasons why the 25th
Anniversary Rock & Roll Hall of Fame concerts took the shape that they did.
Whenever an event of this size and scope is assembled, there always are egos to
stroke and performance-rights issues to resolve. All things considered, the
organizers assembled the best shows that they could, even if they didn’t present
quite as broad a spectrum of rock’s storied history as they had hoped. In the
end, the events were crowd-pleasing, inspired, and uniquely spectacular.
Likewise, the cuts that were made to present the festivities on HBO were
justified. It just would have made more sense to include the entirety of the
affair, as it actually happened, on the resulting DVD collection. ½